British Columbias teachers arent going to walk out on students at least not yet.
The B.C. Teachers Federation announced Wednesday that its 41,000 members will vote April 17 and 18 on whether to escalate their job action to a full protest, according to federation president Susan Lambert.
The plan comes after three days of discussions at the federations annual general meeting.
In the meantime, the union plans to launch a legal challenge to Bill 22, the provincial bill that forced teachers back to work and into a six-month cooling off period. Meanwhile, and the teachers will continue doing outreach and advocacy.
Lambert stressed that the B.C. government should take the time between now and April 17 to reconsider Bill 22.
Government can rethink this legislation. Government can take the higher ground. It has the choice. It has the power, she said.
It will still be up to local teachers associations to decide of they will continue offering voluntary extracurricular sports, programming and events for students, though the April vote may end put an end to all such out-of-hours work.
On the North Shore, the West Vancouver Teachers Association has already pulled out of extracurricular activities, while North Van teachers have yet to decide if they will continue.
We are suggesting to our members not to start anything new, Lambert said.
Should the members vote to walk off the job, BCTF will face fines of more $1.3-million per day and teachers will be docked $470 per day something that weighs heavily on the minds of the union, Lambert said.
We understand the gravity of the situation. The fines are unprecedented. They are punitive. There is obviously an attempt to stifle this union to stifle a voice for kids, she said. Courage is not the absence of fear. But we have to stand up to the type of dismantling that this government is envisioning.
Lambert put the blame for the current impasse on a decade of neglect by the government beginning with Premier Christy Clarks time as the provinces minister of education.
Follow us on Twitter: @NorthShoreNews
https://twitter.com/#!/NorthShoreNews
